Given the Chance
by Takagano Dai
Summary: More Fisherman's Children than KK actually. (Oneshot) Deenie ponders about past, present and future and how one simple thing could have changed it all.


Deenie loved Varne. She really did. It was her new home, after chaos had taken everything away. Evan was here. Pa was here. Goose was, and Rafel and Charris.

But she also missed Lur. The view from the top of the Tower. The ocean down in Restharven. The fountain in the middle of the marketplace. The Palace Gardens. Deenie wished there was a chance to see all of that just once more. Just one tiny look at the country she was born in. Before it broke down and the land was devastated. Go shopping with Ma, and drink in the tavern with friends.

But Ma was no more, and Dorana was no more.

Deenie had always loved the stories Darran had told her and Rafel when they were just children. Of heroes that could do whatever they wished. The knight in the shining armour that rescued the damsel in distress and later married her. Deenie also loved the stories of Ma and Pa and the ones where Pa _was_ Ma's knight. Only that now Pa was alone because Ma had died.

Now the only stories she heard around the city and the palace were those of her and how she helped Evan rescuing the country and the people. Now she was the hero, even if she never had wanted to be one. Back home she was just Deenie the grey mouse and she guessed her Pa still saw her that way when he looked at her. His sweet little daughter. The girl that had cried in his arms when the earth shook or a thunderstorm let loose.

Deenie knew that Pa would die one day and that nobody but her and Rafel would remember his story. Or Gar's.

It was Darran - again – who had told her of the late prince. Of his sacrifice, his life and how he was always misjudged because of what he was. Gar the Cripple. She had always cried when she had heard of this. How he was treated. How unfair all of this was.

But Darran had brought her smile back as soon as he told them how her father was Gar's friend. How they lived together. How Pa had saved Gar's life. That was her favourite story.

When Deenie looked out the window that night, she saw twinkling stars, and soft clouds move with the cold breeze. The same stars and clouds she had seen as a child, years back when Raffel had dreamt of going on adventures with Goose. When everything was still...alright.

A sigh escaped her lips as she started to twiddle with her hair.

Her life was perfect right now. But it was perfect back than as well.

If Morg had been dead or hadn't found a way into Lur, her Ma would still be alive. Gar would still be alive and everything would have been as she was used to. Her Pa wouldn't have that sad smile on his face whenever he thought about his past, Charris wouldn't be bawling her eyes out, thinking about Master Orrick and Goose would be able to be just a normal boy once more.

If the King hadn't been killed by Morg, if Durm hadn't been such an egoistical idiot...

If someone had warned them of what was to come. If they had known the truth behind Barl's Laws.

Things wouldn't have gone down. At least not as fast. They could have found way around it.

They could have changed history and saved countless lives. Morg would have never gotten that much power, killed them...

But at the same time other things wouldn't have happened. Arlin would still be a prick. She would have never met Evan, would have never discovered her own worth.

Sometimes Deenie thinks about these things and wonders what would have happened if someone had told the King and Queen that Olken were able to use magic, without tearing the wall down. Prepared Asher a bit better for his task. Showed them a way around weather magic.

She never found a conclusion.

But as her father hands her an old book on her next birthday, saying 'It is all in your hands now.' she can't believe that it is Barl's Diary she is holding. She nearly faints when she finds the small crinkled note of Gar's glued and hidden between the first page and the cover.

And then she does cry when she opens it and reads his translation of one of Barl's entries.

Because in the end, Barl started out making clocks, knowing how precious a little bit of time could be.


End file.
